Milwaukee County wants WIAA to address hate speech in high school sports

A Milwaukee County Board committee is urging the organization in charge of high school sports in Wisconsin to address hate speech and harassment that happens during games.

On Friday, the county’s Intergovernmental Relations Committee unanimously voted on a resolution asking the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association to “acknowledge a gap in policies and training that has allowed incidents of hate speech and harassment in regular season games to go unaddressed” and recommending that the WIAA do more to “improve protection for student-athletes in the future.” 

The vote comes after multiple incidents of hate speech across the state.

One of the most recent was in May, when athletes from Rufus King High School left a track meet at Waterford Union High School after students and families reported sustained racist taunts. 

An investigation later confirmed the activity. 

Lea Byrd’s daughter was at a senior at Rufus King participating in the event. Byrd said the incident was the first time her daughter had experienced that type of racial harassment during her four years as a track athlete. 

Byrd said the Black students were called “monkeys” and were asked about watermelon and chicken. 

“There were parents who took part, there was a WIAA official who took part, no one stepped up to help the kids,” Byrd said.

After the incident, Waterford Union High School District conducted an investigation. According to district findings, volunteers were intentionally mispronouncing students’ names, middle school students were referring to Rufus King students as “gangsters,” and a WIAA meet official used racially insensitive language directed at a King athlete.

Byrd said her daughter was “shaken and upset.”

“It’s one of those things you see on TV but doesn’t seem real,” Byrd said. “But it was real that day.” 

The school released a statement, saying officials were “committed to holding students accountable.” 

The Waterford incident wasn’t an isolated event. 

On Friday, Milwaukee County Board member Shawn Rolland told fellow board members baseball players at Wauwatosa East High School were subjected to the N-word during regular-season games against Sussex Hamilton and West Allis Hale last spring.

“Both times, officials at the games did nothing to enforce any consequences,” Rolland said. “Our society is always complaining that our kids should stay out of trouble and make good choices and get involved in school. Now these kids are actually making positive choices. And what do they get? Racism and no school official backing them up.” 

WIAA spokesperson Todd Clark replied to questions from WPR with the organization’s existing harassment policy. But the policy only covers tournament games. Milwaukee County wants it expanded to regular-season games.

Clark did not answer further questions.

Supervisor Priscilla Coggs-Jones said WIAA is strict when it comes to enforcing other rules for high school athletes.

She brought up WIAA’s transfer rule that prevents student athletes from playing on varsity teams. That rule is routinely challenged in court. 

“I know that WIAA can definitely tweak some of their rules and regulations, because honestly, they’re probably by far more strict than MPS (Milwaukee Public Schools) when it comes to structure,” Coggs-Jones said. 

Byrd, whose daughter graduated high school in May, would love to see WIAA create a policy against hate speech and harassment. But she says changes need to be made at the schools.

“The schools need to take care of it first, before it escalates to even be a WIAA problem,” Byrd said. “WIAA became a problem in our scenario once the school refused to do anything. It needs to be addressed at every level.”